In Boston…

I cannot stop thinking about my trip to Boston, a place I have not visited for years and years and years. I have been holding special memories of Boston for a long time. Travel, even if only a short train ride away to a different city, provides a pause that enables one to meditate on one’s life, and come back to it refreshed and deepened.  “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust. This time in Boston was a special trip for I went to my first ACGM, the Annual Conference and General Meeting for the Alexander Technique, and I wondered if I should write it up for this Alexander Technique teacher training blog of mine and I thought “why not?” It was my baptism by fire to the greater American Alexander Technique community. It was stepping out from the hothouse environment of my teacher training back in NYC. It was so intense. So much Alex Tech and hanging out crammed into four days. Boston! So much easier for me to hop over to Paris than to go to Boston! My trip started out tentatively and ended up by being totally fabulous.

First things first. I thought, if I am to go to Boston, I must visit Fenway Park. I had never been there. And so I did. So me, a fanatic New York Mets fan, well…I was a Red Sox fan for a game. Alas…the Sox lost…after blowing an 8-run lead. As a Mets fan, well I am so used to this kind of sorry thing. Sigh. I felt right at home.

Michelle and Rena, Alex Tech baseball fans, at Fenway Park

It was so wonderful to meet up with all my Alex Tech pals! And to meet new folks…teachers and trainees alike. I enjoyed fine lessons and workshops galore. The conference allowed me to expand upon the scope of my Alex Tech experience in that I could learn from folks from different methodologies than I have been used to…from teachers who studied with Patrick Macdonald, Frank Ottiwell, at ACAT, and who were influenced by Marge Barstow. You, dear readers, know that my training has been Carrington based.  In Boston, I experienced the larger picture. My training has now been enhanced.

Hey! Shout out time! I want to do some special thank you stuff. So here’s a mille fois merci list for some folks up in Boston… To everyone I met and hung out with. To the great teachers I had lessons, small groups and workshops with. To all I talked with/texted/e-mailed to about going to the ballgame. To everyone I photographed especially to the Board who posed with such panache! To the impeccable Admin staff who made me feel at home. To my work colleagues, both in NYC and in Boston, who kept me on terra firma the whole time with texts, phone calls and in person. To the dude at Fenway who insisted on buying me a beer as it was my first trip to Fenway and because I am a Mets fan not a Yankees fan! To my trainer for especially the impromptu, revelatory touch base that was the game changer for me. The stars were aligned. A thousand thanks to everyone!

Being guided off table by Giora Pinkas, after a turn…

To the exquisiteness of the paintings at Monet and Renoir, and to the peaceful Japanese Garden at the lovely Museum of Fine Arts! To looking down at the field at Fenway, and feeling a different kind of exquisiteness and delight. Another type of dreamy green!

At Japanese Garden, Museum of Fine Arts

Meanwhile, now, back at training, I am being guided in giving ten minute turns, to my co-trainees and to my trainer. Intense, intense concentration! I feel I am bringing all that I experienced and learned to my ongoing training. I am feeling grounded and more secure in knowing how I have to proceed. I am going forward in a more sure way…